A sequel is in the stars for popular video game

The American company that developed the computer game StarCraft, which is most popular in Korea, came to Seoul to announce the sequel to the game.
StarCraft 2 will probably be available commercially here in 2009, analysts say.
Blizzard president and co-founder Mike Morhaime unveiled StarCraft 2 at the Blizzard Worldwide Invitational, a two-day game festival that ended yesterday in eastern Seoul.
He provided demonstrations of the real-time simulation game.
The original StarCraft, a science fiction real-time strategy game, was released in 1998.
Along with its extension pack, the game sold more than 9.5 million copies globally.
Korea’s professional gaming (e-sports) industry is mainly based on StarCraft, with several professional gaming teams and players specifically playing StarCraft and various cable channels dedicated to relaying StarCraft matches.
Unlike the original game, StarCraft 2 is rendered in three-dimensional graphics, and supports Korean voice functions.
The game will feature the same three races as the original game ― Protoss, Terran and Zerg ― but there are new units and many other changes in the gameplay mechanics.
The game is being developed for both Windows and Macintosh platforms.
The company declined to comment on when the game will actually be released.
The sequel went into development in 2003.

By Wohn Dong-hee Staff Writer [wohn@joongang.co.kr]